Sex-specific strategies of resource allocation in response to competition for light in a dioecious plant.

ABSTRACT: The differential plasticity hypothesis suggests that sexual dimorphism in dioecious plants could evolve in response to sex-specific resource requirements for reproduction (i.e., high carbon requirements for ovules and high nitrogen demands for pollen). When resources become limiting during growth, males and females should, therefore, adjust their allocation to resource-harvesting organs differently. To investigate the potential for plants to respond to resource limitation late in life and to test the differential plasticity hypothesis, we grew male and female individuals of the annual wind-pollinated plant Mercurialis annua in a common garden. Late in the growth season, we simulated a change in competition by decreasing plant density in half of the replicates. We measured both allocation t

SUBMITTER: Tonnabel J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5681607 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature